


Precession

by kageygirl



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-29
Updated: 2005-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-19 19:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/204242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kageygirl/pseuds/kageygirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Introspection.  With planetary motion metaphors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Precession

It's a fact of Rodney's life--not a sad fact, please, just a fact; not everything needs to be reduced to some sort of Greek tragedy--that he's learned how to relish things quickly. If he dawdles over a piece of pie or a cup of coffee, he might miss out on getting seconds, and Rodney's an absolute fiend for seconds.

Sheppard, on the other hand, seems to dawdle over everything. Rodney would suspect that the man didn't _have_ a setting higher than "slow," if he hadn't seen him under fire, literally and figuratively, as often as he had (which was really far too often, but currently beside the point).

Rodney hardly understands him; the thought of missing out on something of interest is complete anathema to him. But Sheppard idles over things like he's learned a secret about them, and he seems to be unwilling to share that secret, but possibly he'd be happy to sit with you while you learned it yourself.

There's been an unspeakably frustrating amount of idling happening recently.

Rodney is in no way opposed to depth of knowledge, mind you; one doesn't become the foremost expert on a single subject, let alone the myriad of subjects with which Rodney is conversant, without some serious dedication and investment of time. But lately, he just hasn't been able to tell exactly what Sheppard is ruminating _about_ ; Rodney just looks up, and catches Sheppard watching him with a knowing smirk, and feels like he's missing the joke.

He'd hate that feeling even more than he already does if so many of the jokes didn't turn out to be puerile and uninspired. But Sheppard's particular reverie gives him pause.

Rodney wants to rail at him that they have to keep going, push the boundaries, reset the limits of their knowledge. He needs to keep _moving_ , and Sheppard, without saying anything at all, damn him, anything that Rodney could refute with implacable logic, seems to exhort him to slow down, to savor the moment, to just be unnervingly still for a little while.

Rodney wants to be able to say that he ignores that pointless, tacit, arguably dangerous and _irresponsible_ advice, and just keeps right on pressing onward. But though Sheppard seems to be standing still, Rodney never seems to get all that far away from him, relatively speaking. In a disturbing moment of sentimental metaphoric projection, it occurs to Rodney that one of them might well be orbiting the other.

"Disturbing," that is, because Rodney suspects that _he_ may be the moving body captured and brought to heel by Sheppard's gravity. And the worst part, the absolute worst part of it is that while Rodney's well aware that certain of his colleagues would theatrically feign dying of shock at the thought that Rodney didn't consider himself to be the center of every possible universe, metaphorical or not...

Rodney isn't convinced that he minds this ordering of his personal cosmos.

Because sometimes--though it's completely insane for Rodney to even consider this--Sheppard seems to be dawdling because he's waiting for Rodney to catch up.

And sometimes--though it's even less likely, dependent upon Rodney's uncertain reading of a tilt of the head, or the ghost of a smile--he thinks that Sheppard might almost be waiting for Rodney to lead the way.


End file.
